Verona
Verona is popular beach town on the northeastern shore of Lake Whatever. Because of the steady winds whipping off of the nearby Morose Mountains and the strange effect of the Five Moons on the lake, surfing conditions here are downright righteous. Add to that the city’s numerous other tourist attractions, including the beautiful Church of the Crownless—one of Lüe’s Seven Wonders of the Post-Apocalyptic World—and perhaps you can understand why Edenians still come here in droves, even after the vampire infestation of 287.
Geography
Verona straddles the Cove of Secret Waters, also called Poseidon’s Prison, where legend says the once friendly families of Capulet and Montague bound the spirit of the sea god to the watchtower. It is said that they performed the ritual in order to secure safe passage for their exports of blood honey, a rare foodstuff beloved by Edenians the world over.
The city stretches from the cove in the west to the slopes of nearby Mount Montague in the east, from Brooke’s Brook in the north to the Widow’s Wood in the south.
Deep in the mountain, where the scarlet stingers once dwelled, stands the Hive that Drinks—home to the largest colony of vampires in Eden. They came here in 287, after a sleuth of insatiable bears came down from the mountains and devoured the last of the scarlet stingers—the few, that is, who had somehow survived a century of overfarming by the Montagues and Capulets.
Architecture
The city’s architecture features a distinct blend of Romanesque, Neoclassical, and Mission Revival motifs, resulting in an overall look that would not feel out of place on the shores of California or South Florida.
Notable Landmarks
The most famous building in the city is, of course, the Church of the Crownless—an interfaith house of worship housed in a majestic hexagonal tower. But beyond that stunning monument to peace and harmony, the opulent mansions of House Montague and House Capulet—each of them a castle, really—are the biggest tourist attractions.
The docks which once served as the starting point for the flow of blood honey into the south are now little more than a museum piece—the terminus of a long-dead trade route. And yet, the watchtower still stands guard over the cove, its beacon shining across the water as a message to ships that no longer come.
The watchtower’s beacon, called the Point of Light by the locals, is typically golden-hued. But at dusk on the day The Seven Voices sing a new iteration of reality into existence, the light turns an eerie green color. And that is the color which blazes across Lake Whatever throughout the Wander Years, when halflings and halfling-descended mixers walk Eden alone. The golden color only returns at dawn on the day that reality outside of Eden collapses and a new crop of refugees begins to arrive.
What a strange place. I kind of love the vampire infestation.
Me, too! You can thank Kitoypoy for that, who had vampires on the brain as I was spitballing this idea on stream on the twenty-eighth.